


The TARDIS at the End of the Universe

by Domina_Temporis



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-02 18:30:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 16,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4070167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Domina_Temporis/pseuds/Domina_Temporis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor stops off at the end of the universe, but is more than a little surprised to find that he isn't the only Doctor with this idea, and that he and all his other selves are soon trapped there by an unknown entity. Does have a plot but is basically an excuse for all the Doctors to argue because who doesn't want that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The Doctor, the Seventh incarnation to take the name, sat back, content in the knowledge that he’d arrived where no one, literally no one this time, had ever been. The end of the universe. He’d always been interested in seeing it out to the end; he’d put a lot of time into the universe, after all. Of course, now that he was here he’d have to be careful. He didn’t want to get trapped in the universe’s final contraction. That would be embarrassing. He read the scanner with a distinct feeling of awe, seeing the mathematical proof that the universe as he knew it no longer existed. It was, right now, only a few hundred light-years in size. It was almost unfathomable, that everything he had seen and done no longer existed. The only proof of it now was in his memories. He supposed that some of his earlier incarnations would have grieved more, but in his mind, everything had its time. It was an eternal cycle and it was the universe’s turn to continue the cycle so a new universe could expand and take its place. It was a privilege to see it firsthand. And a responsibility.

“I think we’ve done well, don’t you?” he asked his TARDIS, balancing his umbrella against his shoulder. He heard her hum in gently exasperated patience in his mind and smiled up at the ceiling. “What, I’m only having a little fun! We’ve never been the last to be anywhere before.” The first, yes, to many places. Although, he supposed he was the first to see this as well. First and last, then. How odd.

There was something freeing and bone-deep lonely about being the last person in the entire universe, and the Doctor thought he might set this as one of his favorite destinations in the TARDIS memory. He could use the rest from time to time, a moment alone when the universe and Time itself wasn’t depending on him to make things right, or keep things right in spite of how wrong they might appear. He opened the doors onto the deep black color that was the only thing left of the universe and everything in it. It was hard to believe this was it, there would be nothing else until the next universe expanded. He wished he could see it, get to know it as he knew this one.

The TARDIS suddenly rocked to one side, and the Doctor hung onto the doorpost to prevent himself from falling out the open door. He shook his head, closing the doors. “What was that? There isn’t even anything to hit into anymore! I nearly fell out.” 

“Well, you wouldn’t have had very far to fall, now would you?” said a voice from behind him. The Doctor turned around, finding himself facing...himself. The other Doctor, the Fourth, grinned widely, pushing his hat out of his eyes. "It's an interesting question, what falling into the edge of the universe would feel like."

The Seventh groaned and rolled his eyes. “It's something I have no intention of testing. What are you doing here?”

“The same as you, I expect,” Four answered, holding out his ever-present bag of jelly babies. “I wanted to see what was here.”

“But I’ve never been here before,” Seven protested. “I’d remember if I had!”

“Ah, not necessarily,” Four answered, eyes widening. “Not if there were more than one of us!”

Seven sighed, “Because the crossing of the time streams means that we’re protected from ill effects by not remembering, yes, yes, I know!” He glared at his earlier self irritably. “I came here to be alone, you know.”

Four hopped to his feet, “Well, you are alone. There’s no one here but you. And me. But we’re the same, really. Which one are you?”

“The Seventh. I suppose you’re right, thinking about it philosophically,” Seven answered. “Does that mean every time I come here, you’ll be here too?”

“Very probably,” Four said. “Did you ever think the universe was too small to hold all of me? I have.”

“Not until now,” Seven said under his breath. He moved aside as Four’s scarf whipped around and nearly hit him in the face. How had he ever got around with that monstrosity around his neck? 

“Do you always cover yourself in question marks?” Four interrupted. “It’s a bit obvious, don’t you think?”

Seven glanced down at his vest and umbrella, “Sometimes the obvious is the best defense.”

“Warn people off before they get too close?” Four asked knowingly. 

“Something like that,” Seven answered.

The TARDIS rocked again, and they were both thrown into the wall. “That was what happened before, when you turned up!” Seven said.

Four furrowed his brows in confusion, “But there isn’t anything to hit into.”

“That’s what I said!” Seven answered

“Well, of course that’s what you said! I said it!” Four snapped. 

Seven rolled his eyes, deciding it wasn’t worth his time to answer and they both ran to the console, checking the readings. “Everything seems to be fine.”

“Oh, but that doesn’t mean anything,” Four said.

“Well, no, but I’ve got nothing to go on,” Seven answered.

“Anything I can help with?” a new voice said from behind them. Seven and Four looked at each other, then turned around in unison to see an entirely new Doctor standing there somewhat awkwardly in his cricket jacket and celery. 

“Hello,” said Four, recovering himself first. “Which one are you?”

“Er, the Fifth,” the newcomer said. “And you?”

“Well, this one says he’s the Seventh, and you know I’m the Fourth,” Four answered, as Seven said, “I am the Seventh!”

“Oh, well, I get to Seven then. That’s something,” Five said with a smile. “Now, what are we all doing here? I did think I’d be alone.”

Four and Seven glanced at each other. “We were rather hoping you could tell us that,” Seven finally said.


	2. Chapter 2

The three Doctors looked at each other in some confusion before they all broke out into arguing at once. Seven found himself struggling to even be heard over the chaos..

“Now what is the likelihood of me deciding to come here on a whim, and you being here at exactly the same time?” Five asked exasperatedly.

Four laughed, “Why, incredibly high. There’s only so much room at the end of the universe, you know.”

“I know that!” Five snapped. “I mean, here, in this exact spot. Don’t you think we should all be flying next to each other? Instead, we all ended up right here.”

“I think-” Seven started.

“Well, of course we did. I have a TARDIS, you have a TARDIS, he has a TARDIS. It stands to reason they would all find each other, lock onto each other’s gravity. Especially since they’re all the same TARDIS,” Four said.

“I said-” Seven said pointedly.

“Why would three of us even decide to come here?” Five asked. “It’s not like there’s anything to see.”

“Well, then, why did you come here?” Four asked. “Do I really turn into this?” he added in an aside to Seven, without waiting for an answer.

“I think we’ve been called here,” Seven burst out. Both Four and Five stopped and stared at him. 

“What, you mean, like a homing beacon of some sort?” Five asked.

Seven shrugged, “I don’t know. It could just be the TARDIS calling out to others like her. It is lonely out here,” His voice grew wistful, and the other two looked at him.

“Well, that doesn’t explain what you’re doing here,” Five said flatly, as if that explained everything. “You got here first, what were you following?”

“It’s just a theory! I don’t know what we’re all doing here!” Seven said, his eyes wide in the innocent expression that fooled so many of his enemies. Somehow he doubted it would fool himselves. 

“Let’s just try and remember, shall we?" Five said, his voice taking on a calming tone. “What were we all doing when we decided to come here?”

Four sighed heavily, “Oh, what does it matter? I’m here now.” Both Five and Seven watched him in bemused patience and he sat up, “Fine, fine. I was, now let’s see, I had just come from the water gardens of the Arcadian Prince, and I was on my way to...oh, yes, Macchu Picchu in the fourteenth century.”

“Oh, the sunrises are lovely in the fourteenth century,” Five said with a smile. At a look from Seven he looked down. “Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes. I’d just left Brighton, I believe it was the 1910s and I was about to check in on an old friend in the Centauri system. And then, I don’t know, I just thought I’d take a little detour. I’ve always been curious about it, the end of the universe.” His voice became dramatic and Four sat up.

“Yes, exactly! It was a whim. I have those, you know.”

“And I,” Seven said loudly, because they were talking over him again, “had just finished having tea with Raphael, and the thought just...came into my head. To come here. And I don’t have whims,’ he added with a pointed look at Four. 

“Good, you shouldn’t. Nasty, inconvenient things,” Four agreed with his wicked grin. Seven rolled his eyes at Five, who gave him the equivalent of a shrug in his expression.

The TARDIS lurched again and the three of them clung to the console warily. “We still don’t know what that is,” Five said.

“If I’m right,” Seven mused aloud. “It’s a signal.”

“Hello!” a voice said brightly, whirling around, face falling when he recognized the three other occupants of the TARDIS. “Well, I was about to ask you who managed to get into the TARDIS, but I already know the answer. Why? Because it’s your TARDIS too. Hello, I’m the Doctor!” The new arrival jumped around behind the other three, his energy apparently matching the youthfulness of his outward appearance. Four and Five looked at Seven, silently asking if he recognized the newcomer, to which he shook his head. None of them had ever seen him before.

“Ah, of course, you don’t recognize me, well, why should you? I’m older than you lot, ages older,” the new Doctor all but bounced up and stood up straight, an effect that only called attention to how awkward he was. “I’m the Eleventh. And you are the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh, if I’m not mistaken, and I’m generally not. Sorry, I have to remind myself; it’s all run together a bit now.”

“I’m sorry, did you say Eleven?” Five asked incredulously. 

“Aha, never thought you’d make it that far, did you? Don’t worry, I remember it all, and I’m as amazed as you are,” Eleven said. “But the question is, what are we all doing here?”

“Well, we think we may have been called here,” Seven said.

“We all had the same thought, completely randomly, to come to the end of the universe,” Five said with a smile, starting to enjoy the challenge.

Eleven leaned against the TARDIS console, watching them carefully. “So you think something called us all here across time and space, from wherever we were?”

Five nodded, “It may even have been an accident. The TARDIS, searching for some other life form, her signals boosted by time folding across itself.”

Eleven nodded, “So, a TARDIS sends a beacon across space, a perfectly ordinary beacon, searching for some remnant of her home planet at the end of the universe, and that brought us here?”

“Thought waves!” Four burst out. “Don’t you see? The TARDIS is connected to our thought patterns.”

“The signal probably wasn’t even physical,” Seven said. “It was only in our minds!”

“Can’t be,” Eleven said, shaking his head. 

“Well, why not?” Five asked.

“Because I definitely didn’t receive a thought beacon from any other TARDIS, and believe me, I would have known,” he said, more quietly, a weight seeming to settle on him. 

“So what are you doing here then?” Seven asked.

“I don’t know,” Eleven answered. “I was full-clothes bathing on the moons of Astraketh when I just thought it might be interesting to see the end of the universe. That’s all, I swear.” 

The TARDIS caused a distraction then by suddenly switching between two wall colors. They looked up in alarm. “The time streams are starting to twist,” Five said

“Hmm,” Seven said in agreement. “You haven’t changed the TARDIS very much, have you?” he said to Eleven. “It seems to be getting confused.”

The younger-older Doctor suddenly looked guilty, “Well, I may have, er, changed some things around. You didn’t think I was going to stay with all that white, now did you?”

“A typewriter? What do you need that for?” Five asked, as the TARDIS switched again and the console arrangement changed, new mismatched controls appearing among the older, sleeker ones. Including, apparently, a typewriter. 

“Typewriters are cool,” Eleven said, holding his head high. 

“The point, Doctors, is that we all seem to have come here, and I’d like to know why,” Seven said, and the others quickly quieted down. “Any suggestions?”


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, it seems to me there's some plan at work," a new voice said. The four Doctors all turned around to see a tall figure with curly white hair and a ruffled collar standing calmly by the console. He smiled when he saw them. "It had to have occurred to you, surely?" They all looked at each other; none of them had noticed the TARDIS lurch, although it could have happened while they were busy arguing over console designs.

"Ah, yes, well, I suppose there could be," Five said, recovering himself first. "I take it you've worked out who we all are?"

"Well, of course I have," said Three. "You're me, or at least you will be. It really wasn't that difficult."

"Now, there's no need to be so condescending," Four said, bristling.

"You're one to talk," Seven grumbled.

"Right, I think it's fair to say that a low opinion of myself has never been our problem," Eleven said. "Now can we stop arguing and get to work? There is a problem to solve here."

"He's absolutely right," Five said, as Three looked over the young appearance of his Eleventh self and wrinkled his nose in disdain.

"Are we reverting back to childhood in our later years?" he asked.

"I believe the term is mid-life crisis," Seven mumbled distractedly, looking over readings on the scanner.

"Hey!" Eleven protested, eyes widening in shock. "What about him? He's at least as young as I look, and he's wearing a vegetable!"

"Well, your bow tie is hardly any more fashionable," Five shot back. 

“Bow ties are cool,” Eleven said flatly, as if that determined it.

“For goodness sake, what does the temperature have to do with anything?” Three asked in exasperation. “I suppose maturity isn’t a desirable trait in your time?”

“Oh, it’s never desirable,” Four said, holding out a small bag. “Jelly baby?”

"He's only trying to seem distinguished," Seven said long-sufferingly to the room, looking pointedly in Three's direction. "He is the youngest one here at the moment, now can we please get back to work?"

Eleven glared at Three, straightening his bow tie and turning his attention to the console.

"What do you mean, a plan?" Seven asked, looking up at Three..

"Well, I'm assuming you worked out that someone called us here?" the earliest Doctor present said.

"That's debatable," Eleven interrupted.

"Yes, well, if someone called us here, then there must be a plan in place," Three went on. "And I'd say it's a pretty big one to require all of us."

“There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation,” Five said. “And you have to admit, it’s an unbelievable coincidence that it’s only my incarnations who were drawn here. The odds must be - “

“In the billions,” Seven finished.

The TARDIS lurched again and they were all thrown off balance, except for Four, who managed to remain standing as the rest fell around him.

"I wonder which one of us arrived this time," Five said as he got up.

The new arrival had apparently been thrown as off balance as the rest of them, because he picked himself up with a wide grin and adjusted his long brown coat. "Oh, now that is brilliant! Don't know what I expected to find here at the end of the universe, but it certainly wasn't this. Having a party, are we? Although, I don't know if it can really be called a party since, technically, only one person is in attendance."

"Are we all such chatterboxes in our old age?" Seven burst out.

"Oi, watch who you're calling old," Eleven said. "Now Ten here raised a good point that everyone's forgetting-"

"Oh, is that who you are?" Four asked. "It's dreadfully hard to tell you all apart. None of you exist yet, you know."

"Sorry, yes, I'm the Tenth," the new arrival said, putting his hands in his pockets and moving between them with a grin. "Hello!" He looked thrilled to be here, smiling widely at each of his other selves. Every so often he would exclaim over something small he noticed, like Five’s shoes and Seven’s paisley scarf. It was very distracting.

"As I was saying," Eleven said pointedly. "Hair Gel over there said that it can't be a party if only one person is in attendance." He looked around the room expectantly, meeting only blank stares, except for Ten, who was running his fingers through his hair in confusion, looking for hair gel. 

"I think I see," Seven said. The others all looked at him and he went on. "Well, we never travel alone, do we?"

Eleven nodded, "So where are our companions?"

They all looked at each other. "I could have sworn Tegan was there with me," Five finally said.

"Yes, and Amy was with me," Eleven said. "So why aren't they here now?" The TARDIS lurched again and they looked up to see who had arrived, distracted from the new argument.

“It would take a lot before I abandoned a companion,” Three said. 

“Except for all the times we abandoned our companions,” Eleven shot back. “Let’s be honest, at least with ourselves, shall we?” None of the others looked at him, unwilling to admit the truth of the statement.

“Oh, Sarah forgave us, by the way,” Ten cried suddenly, breaking the silence and looking at Four. “For leaving her in Aberdeen.” He looked around at the stunned expressions, seemingly proud of himself for derailing the conversation again.

Four sat up straighter, thinking it over. “Oh, is that where it was? You’ve seen her, then?”

“Yes,” Ten said with a grin.. “She’s having a great life. Going on, doing what we always did.”

“Yes, that’s my Sarah,” Four said wistfully.

“Your Sarah?” Three said derisively. “I think I knew her first.”

“If we could get back to business,” Seven said hurriedly, trying to head off another argument. He gestured toward the door. “Look who’s just arrived.”

A white-haired old man was standing there, looking confused. He drew himself up as he realized they were watching him, eyeing them suspiciously. "Who are all you people, and what are you doing in my TARDIS?" he asked imperiously. The others all looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"This might take some explanation," Five finally said.


	4. Chapter 4

“Well? Aren’t any of you going to answer my question?” the first Doctor asked imperiously.

Seven and Four sighed, rolling their eyes at each other. Ten, however, stepped right up to the new arrival, pulling a pair of glasses out of his pocket and peering at him. “Oh, you are brilliant. The original!” He looked around at the others, who looked back blankly. 

One, meanwhile, was staring at Ten in bafflement, “Is there something wrong with you, young man?” 

Ten shook his head, still grinning. “Nope, not me.”

“Nothing that isn’t wrong with the rest of us, I assure you,” Three said stepping into the front holding out his hand. “I’m the Doctor, and so are they.”

One looked at him suspiciously. “The Doctor, you say?”

“That’s right,” Five said. “He’s the Third, I’m the Fifth, and that’s the Fourth, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh.” He smiled. “Oh, this is fun.”

“But - but, something is terribly wrong, for all of us to be in one place like this!” One said frantically, rushing to the TARDIS console. “We’re breaking the First Rule of Time, meeting like this!”

Ten and Eleven looked at each other and burst out laughing. “I’m sorry,” Ten said breathlessly. 

“It’s just that after eleven lifetimes, there aren’t many rules left I haven’t broken,” Eleven said.

Ten shrugged, “The universe is still standing.”

“More or less,” Eleven agreed. 

“Not for very much longer,” Three said. “And that’s a remarkably cavalier attitude about something so important,” 

“Hmm, yes, I quite agree,” One said.

“No, it really isn’t,” Eleven said, no longer the carefree young man he appeared to be. He stared his first incarnation down, a look in his eyes that suggested power beyond limits. “After everything I’ve seen, everything I’ve done, I’ve learned to be a bit less uptight about rules.”

He and Ten nodded almost imperceptibly to each other, and Seven caught Five’s eyes. There was something wrong here, but not with their situation. With themselves. There was something drastic that had changed between their single-digit and double digit incarnations. Ten and Eleven were weighed down with palpable grief, in spite of their outward childishness.

“You still haven’t explained to me what’s going on here,” One said, turning from one to another.

“It’s very simple,” Four said. “We all ended up here for reasons unknown, and now we’re trying to figure out what they were.”

“Do you mean to tell me we all came to this exact spot without knowing why?” One asked. “And for goodness sake, what is that around your neck?”

“It’s a scarf,” Four said, his eyes widening.

“At least it’s not a vegetable,” Three whispered to Ten, who looked apologetically at Five.

“Oh, I like the celery, it’s...whimsical?”

“It’s ridiculous,” One said flatly, turning to Ten, who looked a little startled. “If you really are me, where is your self-respect?”

“Oh, now where’s the fun in that?” Ten asked. “I didn’t leave Gallifrey just so I could keep being a stuffy stick-in-the-mud -sorry, sorry.”

“A stick-in-the-mud, am I?” One asked, bristling.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen!” Four said, standing up and striding around the room between them. “We’re among friends, aren’t we? What’s a few disagreements about fashion compared to that?” he spread his hands out and grinned.

“My successor is right,” Three said. “None of us have ever had the most on-point fashion sense, have we?”

Eleven started to laugh, “Remember the time we were late to biochemistry 101 and showed up in the national outfit of the Ohkesh of Arabathon?”

Three started to chuckle, “The ones that bear a remarkable resemblance to bubbles?”

“That’s the one,” Eleven said. 

One started to laugh too, “You still remember that, do you? I thought Borusa’s eyebrows were about to fly away, they rose so high!” He chuckled. “I suppose we really haven’t changed that much, have we?”

“Oh, not at all, I’m proud to say,” Five said with a grin.

“So, none of you ever went back, then?” One asked. The others all looked at each other, wondering what to say.

“Well, if none of us will remember this, I suppose it couldn’t do any harm,” Seven said. “I wouldn’t mind a preview of where I’m headed, myself.”

One was still waiting expectantly, and Eleven took up the story, “Oh, we went back, many times.”

“Sometimes kicking and screaming,” Three added. 

“Oh, so they caught me, then?” One asked, sounding faintly amused by the whole thing.

“Not you, exactly,” Three said. “My predecessor. Who they executed and then exiled me to Earth.”

“But not for long,” Five said, while Three glared at him.

“It was long enough, my dear fellow.”

“Then I was appointed President,” Four broke in.

Five scoffed, “So was I.”

“And - no, that was the one before me,” Seven said. 

One watched them, eyes wide. “Me, President of the High Council?”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Five said. “None of us took it.” One looked slightly more satisfied, until Ten stepped in.

“And then I, well not me, exactly, but one of us, destroyed it.” 

Dead silence followed his words, and they all stared at him, except Eleven, who kept a hand in front of his face. 

“What do you mean, destroyed it?” Five asked. 

“Gallifrey,” Eleven said, looking up with a heaviness in his expression. “It’s gone.”

“It isn’t just gone,” Ten said acidly. “It was destroyed. By us. It and the Daleks.”

Seven shooked his head in the silence. “I knew something like that was coming. There was no way to stop it, and I tried.”

“You mean those hideous creatures I met on Skaro?” One asked.

“Those creatures became the greatest menace the universe has ever seen,” Ten said harshly. “They kept coming, and coming, more and more of them every day, and I couldn’t stop them.”

“Nobody could stop them,” Eleven said. “And the Time Lords weren’t innocent either.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Ten snapped.

Five cleared his throat, “You mean there was a war? Between the Time Lords and the Daleks.”

Ten nodded, swallowing painfully. “The Time War took over all of time and space, the entire universe was ablaze.”

“Both sides would have destroyed the universe in order to win,” Eleven said quietly. “There was no other choice.” 

Three recovered himself first, breaking the awkward silence. “Oh, come now, there must have been something.”

“Did you think I didn’t try?” Ten asked, anguish apparent in his voice. 

“Sometimes the only choices are terrible ones,” Seven said quietly.

There was yet another silence, followed by One clearing his throat. “Is that what I became, by leaving Gallifrey? A destroyer of worlds?”

The others carefully avoided each other’s eyes. One stood up, “I...I never should have left.”

“Oh, come on,” Ten said, glaring at him. “Don’t pretend you would have done any differently if you had known.”

“I might have!” One protested. “I wanted to see the universe, not destroy it!”

“No, but you’ve always known. This darkness that lives inside you. You’ve seen it, you just don’t want to admit it,” Ten said, stepping forward until he was staring One right in the eyes. “But you’ll use it, you’ve got no qualms about that. Harness that dark quality, whatever it is, to get you where you want.”

“Hang on,” Five said. “Am I the only one who’s remembering all the worlds we’ve saved? The people we’ve helped?” No one answered, and the silence deepened.

“He’s right, though,” Seven said from where he was sitting with his chin on his umbrella. The others all looked at him, and he pointed his umbrella at Ten. “We’ve all lived with that darkness, used it as we see fit to do what needs to be done. Me more than anyone.”

Five shook his head, “I still see us helping people more than hurting.”

“Right, fine, so maybe we’re not as nice as we seem, maybe there is something dark about us,” Eleven said, getting up and starting to pace. “Does any of this matter? You were never going to stay on Gallifrey, no matter what you knew,” he added, looking at One. “And if you didn’t leave, one of us would have. None of us are all that good at living within polite society.”

Nervous laughter followed this statement. “In any polite society,” Seven clarified. 

“All right, so what if we’ve broken the rules a few times, done things other people wouldn’t do?” Eleven continued.

Five sat up, “I’ve always done what I had to do to save as many as I could, any way I could.”

Eleven grinned and pointed right at him, “Exactly! If it saves lives, if it stops something harmful, if it protects people, then I do it. I’m the last stop; I don’t have the luxury of debating ethics in the face of an invasion.”

“Well put,” Three finally said. 

Eleven nodded, sitting back down.

“So,” Seven said, bringing the conversation back to their situation. “What do we do about the here and now?”


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctors all fell silent, the heavy discussion of their motives and actions pushed aside in the face of their current problem. One sat down, looking expectantly at his successors. “Well? Any ideas, hmmm?”

“Several,” Three answered. “Unfortunately, they all depend on having access to a lab outside the TARDIS.” The TARDIS lurched again, but no one paid any attention, too used to it now to care.

“Oh, I forgot you were a homebody,” Ten said with a smile. “How is everyone? The Brigadier? Mike Yates? Jo Grant? Oo, sorry, are you not up to her yet?”

“Everyone’s very well, thank you,” Three answered, sounding annoyed. “I take it you haven’t been back to UNIT recently, then?”

“The military’s not really my style,” Ten said darkly.

“And yet you claim to have destroyed your own home planet?” Seven asked incredulously. “That’s a bit hypocritical, don’t you think?”

“Not if he wasn’t the one who destroyed it,” a deeper voice said. They turned around to see a figure with short hair in a leather jacket leaning against the TARDIS. 

“Oh, come on, are we really going to start distinguishing between incarnations?” Eleven asked in exasperation. “What you do, what I do, what he does. We’re all the same, does it really matter?”

The new arrival raised an eyebrow and shrugged, “I wouldn’t mind that, sometimes. Who doesn’t want to forget their mistakes? Like that collar. Ruffles, really?” He sent Three’s outfit a disdainful look.

“Whereas you look about as professional as the plumber who unstoppered the Brigadier’s kitchen sink,” Three shot back. 

“Hang on, let me work this out,” Seven said. “You’re before him” -pointing to Ten, “but after me. Eight?”

“Nine,” the leather-jacketed new arrival said.

“Eleven’s right,” Five said. “I’ve always taken responsibility for anything my previous incarnations have done. We are all the same man, after all.”

“It’s different for you,” Three shot back. “You didn’t have it forced on you.”

“Exactly,” Nine said. “See, Ruffles gets it. All of your decisions coalesced on me. Every time you let the Daleks live, every time you pushed the war off, you pushed it off on me. Are you proud of yourselves? For destroying us, and everything else along the way?”

The atmosphere grew uncomfortable, Ten and Eleven carefully not looking at any of the others, and the previous five glancing at each other in shame. It didn’t matter that they knew nothing of these future events. They knew what he said was true.

One stood up, “I can see I’m going to have to corral all of you. Utter children! It doesn’t matter who did what, what matters is where we are now. Now, why were we all brought here?”

“We still haven’t figured out if we were brought here,” Four said, but One shushed him with a glare.

The others deferred to him, looking between each other for the answer. “Because somebody wants something?” Five finally suggested.

“Because somebody wants something only we can give them,” Eleven clarified.

One waved his cane at Eleven. “Exactly, my boy!”

“But what can that possibly be?” Three asked.  
“The TARDIS?” Ten suggested half-heartedly.

One waved a hand, “They could get that anywhere, all they need to do is go to Gallifrey.”

“Not from where I’m standing,” Ten said. 

“Think, my boy, think! If something managed to get a message to all of us, from me to you, then doesn’t that mean they could find their way to Gallifrey too, no matter what’s happened to it in the future, hmm?” One asked, looking up at Ten, who rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish.

“Er, yeah, that does make sense.” he grinned.

“What would you all do without me?” One asked, shaking his head, moving between them.

“Be very bored on Gallifrey, I expect,” Three said. “If they weren’t looking for the TARDIS, what were they looking for?”

“Ahh, that is what’s interesting,” One said, beginning to pace as if he were a lecturer at the Academy. Nine rolled his eyes, seating himself on the edge of the console. “Whatever it is, it’s something that requires all of us.”

“Not necessarily,” Seven argued. “It could have been looking for just one of us and got us all by mistake.”

Nine shook his head, “This thing, whatever it is, it doesn’t make mistakes like that.”

“Well, why on Earth not?” Three asked.

“Because,” Nine said. “If this thing, whatever it is, could reach across time and find just our brainwaves, nobody else’s, wherever we happened to be, then it could have picked only the one it wanted. Instead, it set up a Doctors’ reunion for us.” He glowered at them, daring them to tear a hole in his theory.

“Ahh, I see,” Five said. “Whatever it wants, it needs all of us to get it. Although I can’t see why. I think it’d be in for more trouble than it bargained for, with all of us here.”

“It certainly won’t get what it’s after,” Seven said. “Not with all this arguing.”

“Not unless what it wants is to eliminate us,” Eleven said. “All of us, I mean. Because I travel around the universe, and while I may think I’m generally pretty great, not everyone agrees.”

“The Daleks,” One threw in.

“The Axons,” Three said.

“The Jagrafess,” Ten said, then looked apologetically at Nine. “Sorry, that was yours, wasn’t it?”

“My point is,” Eleven went on. “There are plenty of people and beings that would love to see us all dead, or better yet, erased from history completely.”

The thought was disquieting, and they all looked at each other. “Do you mean to tell me we’ve just wandered into an elaborate trap?” Four asked, rather angrily.

Three was staring at them impassively, “It seems I’ve become rather famous by your time.”

“I’ve gained myself a bit of a reputation these days,” Eleven said.

“So what are we supposed to do, just sit here and wait for this thing to kill us?” Five asked.

“I’m not very good at waiting,” Nine said darkly.

Seven looked up, calculating, “It gives us plenty of time to work our way out of this, if nothing else.” Everyone looked at him and he went on, “Well, it could take hours for the rest of us to turn up!”

“That’s right,” Five said. “There’s at least three of us missing already, and if you’re only Eleventh, there’s at least two after you.”

“And who knows if we’ve found a way around the limit by then?” Seven mused. Three and Five stared at him, scandalized. “What? I can’t be the only one who’s thought of it.”

“Let’s face it, if anyone could find their way around the limit, it’d be us,” Ten said. 

“So nice to see I haven’t gained any modesty in my old age,” Three said with a smile as the TARDIS shuddered and swung to the side.

“Modesty is overrated,” a high pitched, commanding voice said as the newest arrival walked around the TARDIS, surveying his other selves.

“It must be, for you to walk around like that,” Nine said, his eyes wide as Ten collapsed into giggles next to him.

“At least I’m not dressed in boring, like you,” the new Doctor said.

“No, no, boring is definitely not a word anyone would use to describe you,” Ten said through giggles.

“I'm the Sixth, by the way,” their latest arrival said. “Now, have we worked out why we’re all here?”


	6. Chapter 6

“Only enough to know we’ve been brought here because someone wanted to get us all alone, possibly to kill us,” Three said casually. 

“So, the usual, then?” Six asked, looking around at all of them.

“Hardly the usual,” Seven said, trying to avoid looking at the rainbow-colored coat. “Whatever this thing is, it’s breaking the First Rule of Time nine times over.”

“So far,” Four interjected.

“So whatever this thing is, it’s powerful,” Six said. “Powerful enough to ignore the Rules of Time and intelligent enough to pick out individual brainwaves across all of time and space.”

“That’s about it,” Four said.

Six began to pace, “Hasn’t anyone wondered how it’s doing all this? I don’t see any scientific equipment, any instruments? There isn’t even anyone else besides us!”

“One of us, I don’t remember which, suggested mind control,” Five said. “But I don’t know if we agreed on it, as much as we can agree on anything, that is.” 

“And who put you in charge, young man?” One asked, bristling and standing in front of Six, who looked highly affronted.

“Did you think just because you’re the First you get to be in charge? I have more experience than you do.”

“Well, if we’re going by that, I have more experience than all of you,” Eleven said, waving.

Six shot him a withering look, “Do you know, I’d almost believe you if you didn’t look like you were twelve years old.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Three said, stepping in between them all. “There’s no reason to get so defensive. We’re all just trying to work out what we’re doing here.”

“I can’t believe I turn into that,” Five said under his breath.

Nine scoffed, “Well, if you don’t like your replacement, look at mine. All hair gel and charisma.”

“For the last time, I’m not wearing hair gel!” Ten said, turning an exasperated look at his predecessor.

“I’m supposed to believe it stands up like that on its own, does it?” Nine asked sarcastically.

“Enough!” Four yelled, standing up and glaring at them. “Honestly, is every one of you after me a child? Have you all forgotten the universe is collapsing around us?”

Five glanced at the scanner and furrowed his brows, “Yes, it’s lost half its volume since the TARDIS first arrived here.” 

“I’m not a child,” Seven said sulkily, but Six waved a hand.

“Fine, let’s work it out so we can get out of here and back to our own times. I don’t like the idea that someone has just been bringing us all here.”

“If it’s mind control, wouldn’t we sense it?” Ten asked. “I mean, a mind that big and that powerful that it could find us scattered across galaxies and centuries must have a pretty big presence.”

They remained silent for a few moments, but the only sound was the hum of the TARDIS engines. “I don’t sense anything, do you?” Three asked. "Mind you, it could be shielding itself."

The rest shook their heads. “What if we joined our minds?” Five asked. “If it’s shielding itself, the combined force of nine Time Lords might be able to break through.”

“It’s worth a try,” Four said, and they all closed their eyes and concentrated, slipping into each other’s minds without much effort. They were all the same person, and there was very little difference between them. Only enough to make being together irritating. 

After some effort, they broke the connection, shaking their heads. “It’s no good,” Ten said. “There’s nothing there except us.”

“Yes, and I think I’m spending quite enough time with myself as it is without having to share brain space,” Six said haughtily.

“If it is shielding itself, it’s done a very good job,” Three said.

“But then what’s keeping us here?” Seven asked.

“I’ll tell you, nothing,” Nine said. “Seems to me you’ve all been sitting here waiting for more of us to turn up, but none of you have tried to leave. How d’you know it’s keeping you here then?”

They all looked at each other. “It simply never occurred to me to leave,” Five said.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t really like leaving a mystery unsolved,” Ten said uncertainly.

“One of us should test it,” Three said. They all looked at each other, none wanting to be the first to try.

“I’ll do it,” Six said finally, pulling some levers on the console. The TARDIS engine started to grind, the central console rising and they all watched curiously.

After only a few seconds, the grinding noise became a screeching, and Six hurriedly switched the engines off. “That answers that question,” he said.

“I don’t like this,” Ten said, looking worried. “Nothing can take over the TARDIS.”

“I quite agree with- which are you, the Tenth?” One said. “I don’t like this at all. We are dealing with forces far beyond anything I’ve encountered.”

“Is it something that’s taken over the TARDIS? Or is it something keeping us in place on the outside?” Four asked.

“Is there a difference?” One asked.

“Oh, I should think so, a very big difference,” Four said. “Something that’s taken over the TARDIS without our knowledge, oh, now that is a problem. Something holding us in place is entirely different.”

“Not necessarily,” Five said. “If something’s preventing the TARDIS from moving on the outside, that means it can control the time vortex and the fabric of space-time. If anything, it’s more powerful!”

“Yes, but it might be easier to escape an outside force instead of destroying a force that’s already on the inside, don’t you see?” Four said earnestly.

“But what could be out there, anyway?” Six asked dismissively. “The universe is collapsing, all the stars are gone. There’s nothing left to hold us in place or to take over the TARDIS!”

“Well, if it wanted us dead like I said, it couldn’t have picked a better spot,” Eleven said. “What could be more natural than collapsing with the universe?”

They contemplated this as the TARDIS lurched to one side again. “It would seem we’ve found the perfect murder, then,” Six said with a sigh.

“Oh, I don’t think there’s anything perfect about a murder,” said a new voice, belonging to what appeared to be a long-haired Victorian poet. “But then, I never expected to find you all here either, so what do I know?”


	7. Chapter 7

The new arrival looked between them, finally breaking into a smile as if this was some grand adventure. "Hello, I'm the Eighth, by the way."

Seven rolled his eyes at the newcomer, "Just my luck. I turn into Lord Byron's doppelganger."

Eight didn't look at all offended, merely watching Seven with slightly raised eyebrows. "Everyone always thinks I'm a poet and I can never work out why. I've never written a poem in my life. Well, this one, anyway. I did know some excellent poets"

“Chaucer!” Four said with a grin. “I’ll never forget it, ‘Geoff,’ I said, ‘you can write all you want but no one wants to read about the miller’s wife telling a story.” Oh, he proved me wrong!”

"Can we get back to business?" Six asked exasperatedly. "Now that we know we are in fact trapped here?" Eight nodded to Ten, who was whispering in his ear, probably filling him in hastily.

"Well, how do we tell if whatever's keeping us trapped is on the inside or the outside?" Eight asked, once he’d been caught up. 

Five went over to the scanner. "It's not reading anything other than the collapse itself. As far as the TARDIS knows, we're the only living things in the entire universe. What an odd feeling.”

Eleven shuddered, “Yeah, I’ve never really liked being on my own.” Ten nodded fervently next to him.

“Speak for yourself, young man,” One said. “I didn’t run away from Gallifrey so I could be with all these infernal, narrow-minded fools the universe is populated with!”

"Ooo, now that’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?” Eight asked, looking reproachfully at One before going on. “Could it be just the timelines collapsing, coalescing on each other and preventing us from leaving? I'd imagine even the TARDIS would have a hard time finding her way through that."

"And we all just came here on our own, did we?" Nine asked.

"Well, if we had, wouldn't we expect to meet each other?" Eight asked logically. "It's not like there's much space to spread out."

"So we just walked into our own demise?" Three asked. "All of us at once? It seems a bit too much of a coincidence."

Eleven shook his head, "No, there's something else going on here. I can feel it. Nice try though, Not-Lord-Byron."

They all quieted down, the realization that this might be it for them all sinking in. "So that's it then," Six said. "Either we wait here for someone to kill us, or we wait here to die with the universe."

"Doesn't really give us many options, does it?" Five asked.

"No, but this is ridiculous!" Eleven said, jumping up. "I've seen and done more things than anyone could possibly dream of. I've survived more things than some civilizations have. I ended the Last Great Time War. I refuse to believe that this is the end." He sat down heavily, "There's always something else that can be done."

"Are you feeling better?" Four asked teasingly once he'd finished.

"Not really, no," Eleven answered peevishly.

Eight watched him in interest. "So the Time War did end."

Nine scoffed and said bitterly, "No thanks to you. Did it ever occur to you that if you'd intervened from the start, you could have stopped it before it really got started?" He glared at his direct predecessor as if his optimism was a direct affront to everything that had occurred. 

"You know just as well as I do that it was a fixed point in time. There wasn’t anything I could have done to stop it. I would only have made it worse," Eight answered calmly.

"Like we've ever really cared about that," Nine said with a glare.

“The fixed point in time or the making things worse?” Seven asked quietly, but the argument had escalated and no one heard him as Eight and Nine stared daggers at each other.

"Hang on a minute," Ten stepped in, looking at Nine in reproach. "Don't go blaming him for the war, that's on all of us. Every one of us."

"Yes, I've been wondering how exactly this war got started," One said. 

"No one really knows," Ten said. "Some people say it was when Skaro was destroyed*, others that it was at the very beginning, that they found out the Time Lords tried to stop the Daleks’ creation**. It was overnight, seemingly. One day everything was ordinary, the next, the whole universe was torn apart. Daleks and Time Lords fighting across all time and space.” He sighed and looked down as he remembered, and the others fell silent, trying to imagine the scale of it.

"Well, if it started at the beginning, then I'm responsible," Four said reasonably. "I was the one the Time Lords sent to stop Davros. And I failed. The Daleks never would have existed if I’d done what they sent me to do.” He sank into a chair, staring off at the wall morosely.

" I'm the one who destroyed Skaro," Seven said. "None of us are blameless. We each carry the weight of what our other selves have done, or will do."

"Maybe," Nine said. Then he smiled, "Least it means I'm not bearing all the weight of it myself.”

"We've all been doing that for too long," Eleven said quietly.

The TARDIS hummed gently and Ten took a look at the scanner. "Down to a quarter of the universe now. All those stars..."

"Do you know, we're probably the only being who can say we've seen it from beginning to end?" One said, with a slightly wicked grin. He giggled. "Imagine that? Me, of all people?"

"Well, who else would it be?" A new, harsher voice asked as the TARDIS was thrown to one side. "Come on, what are you all doing there, giving up?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *From the Seventh Doctor serial, Remembrance of the Daleks  
> **From the Fourth Doctor serial, Genesis of the Daleks


	8. Chapter 8

The new arrival was dressed all in black, with grey curly hair. He was glaring at them, or at least he seemed to be. It was hard to tell if that was just his natural expression or not. “Come on, do none of you have an idea, something that could get us out of here?” he asked. 

“Who are you?” Ten asked suspiciously.

“That depends on who you ask,” the new arrival answered. “Most people call me The Doctor, but you know that already, don’t you?”

“Yes, but which number?” Ten asked impatiently.

“Twelve,” he answered. The others nodded, but Ten and Eleven looked at each other in alarm, taking Twelve aside.

“You can’t exist,” Eleven said. 

“No, I mean you physically can’t exist,” Ten said urgently. “I used up an extra regeneration. he’s the last one.”

“Yes, staying exactly the same. I can’t imagine why,” Twelve answered shortly.

“The point is,” Eleven said, holding up a finger in teaching mode, “He used up an extra regeneration and there’s that other one in between Eight and Nine.” He shook his head, clearing the memories out of his thoughts. “That makes me the one who’s going to run out of regenerations. There can’t be any more after me!”

Twelve rolled his eyes, “You want to try to keep up. Obviously there can, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

“But there’s no way to get around it!” Eleven cried, looking over his shoulder to see if any of the others were listening.

“Weeeeellll,” Ten said. Eleven looked at him expectantly, but he didn’t go on.

“Well, what?” 

“Well, we were just saying only about an hour ago that if anyone could figure out a way around the limit, it’d be one of us,” Ten said.

Twelve nodded to Ten, “You want to listen to number Ten. Or is it Eleven? I get so confused now, thanks for that, by the way. I never used a name, now I don’t even get a proper number.”

“Well, what do you think?” Eleven asked. “He could be an imposter.”  
T  
en shook his head, “No, I don’t think so. If we’re the only ones who have been brought here, then it stands to reason he’s one of us too.”

Oh,” Eleven drew himself up. “So I must find a way around the limit. That’s a nice thought.” He looked extremely proud of himself, and Twelve stared at him.

“Get a hold of yourself. We’re never going to do anything if we don’t get out of here.” He turned to everyone else and raised his voice, “What have you figured out so far?”

“That we’re trapped here, that the universe is collapsing, that we were probably brought here by mind control,” Six said lazily.

“But we can’t figure out if we’re being held here from the outside or if something’s messing around with the TARDIS,” Five said.

“Well, it’s the TARDIS, of course,” Twelve said, rolling his eyes when everyone looked blank. “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t thought of it. How could more of us keep arriving if something’s keeping the TARDIS blocked off?”

“Oh, yes,” Three said. “I see what you mean.”

“Well, it could be…” Eight started, “No, no, it couldn’t shut off the time vortex, could it? Not if it wanted more of us to come through.”

“Exactly,” Twelve said, snapping a finger at Eight. “See, problem solved. You just needed someone around who knew what he was doing.”

“Now that’s a bit harsh,” Four said mildly.

Six looked at him incredulously, “Really? I thought he was exactly right. I can’t figure out what you exactly it is you all do when you’re not me.”

Twelve looked up, “Thanks. Nice to know the man who fell into a vat of rainbows agrees with me.”

Ten started laughing into his hand, and Six shot him a look. “Sorry,” Ten said, doing his best to look serious.

The TARDIS rocked violently from side to side again, and they all glanced around. “It’s happening more often now,” Seven said.

“As the universe gets closer to the point of collapse, the less time there is for more of us to arrive,” Eleven said. “More proof that someone out there is controlling this,”

“Oh, I was wondering when you were going to turn up,” Three said disdainfully at their newest arrival.

“It’s very nice to see you too,” Two said haughtily before rubbing his hands together and grinning at the others. “Well, hello, this is a party, isn’t it?”

“I really don’t think the end of the universe constitutes a party,” Six said as the TARDIS locked itself back into place.

Two walked between all the other incarnations, watching them curiously. “Well, aren’t you going to introduce yourselves? I only know my predecessor, you see.”

Nine stood up, his expression long-suffering, “All right, queue up, everyone, in order.”

“Like we’re in nursery school?” Three asked in disgust.

“Come on, just do it, it’s easier than pointing us all out in the wrong order,” Nine said, shoving him into place.

“So, let’s see,” Two said, starting to count. “One, Two, that’s me, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve. My word, there are Twelve of me!”

“One more to go,” Nine said darkly, and Ten, Eleven and Twelve shot each other furtive looks. 

“It is rather impressive, isn’t it?” Eight asked appreciatively.

Two nodded, “I didn’t think I’d make it past One when I left!”

“Yes, how gratifying to realize I was wrong,” One said, with a hint of sarcasm. “Now can we please figure out what’s going on before all these lives are erased from time?”

“Yes, I suppose we’d better,” Two said, peering at the console. “I take it you’ve already tried scanning to see who brought us all here, and trying to leave?”

“Yes, how did you know?” Five asked.

“It’s what I would have done,” Two answered simply. “The more difficult question is: why were we all brought here?”

“Ahh,” Four said. “That is the question, isn’t it?”

“At the moment I don’t really care why,” Nine said. 

“Well, you should,” Two countered. “Because if we figure that out, we’ll very likely find out who it is that brought us here.” Nine rolled his eyes and stepped back as Two took over the console, pushing Doctors out of the way as he moved around it.

“I have no idea why we’re here,” Three said, sitting down. “So do hurry it up, old chap, we only have about four hours left in this universe.”

“Morbid, isn’t he?” Ten asked Five.

“Extremely,” Five answered. 

“It’s hard not to be at the end of the universe,” Twelve cut in. Ten rolled his eyes.

“I think I’ve got it!” Two cried.

“What?” Twelve asked. “Speak up, what is it?”

“The Time Vortex is folding in on itself,” Two said. “And who is more connected to the vortex than I am?”

“So you think we simply felt the...tendrils of time collapsing and were, what, drawn, here?” Eight asked.

“Possibly,” Two said.

“You said you had it!” Three said accusingly.

“Yes, but I didn’t say what it was, did I?” Two said, with annoying patience. “It is a theory, one I’m willing to bet you hadn’t thought of.”

“But then why wouldn’t we be able to leave?” Ten asked.

“Because once they’re folded too much, the TARDIS couldn’t find her way out,” Eleven answered. “Similar to the theory, who was it, Eight came up with.”

“See? I told you it made sense,” Eight said. 

“But that means there’s nothing we can do,”Ten continued, starting to panic.

“I didn’t say that either,” Two said.

“Yes, there’s always something,” Eleven said distractedly. “It’s a start, anyway.”


	9. Chapter 9

“So is it still worth it?” Five asked conversationally, all of a sudden, looking up from his seat under the TARDIS console.

“Is what worth it?” Ten asked, next to him.

“The travelling,” Five said, gesturing around. “It certainly doesn’t look like any of us have stopped.”

“Why would we?” Eleven asked. “The whole universe, all of time and space. Why would I ever stop?”

“You’re lying,” Seven said. “I can always tell, especially when it’s me.”

“Oh, we don’t want to get into the habit of lying to ourselves, do we?” Four asked. Twelve and Six rolled their eyes at each other, seemingly annoyed with the introspective mood this conversation had taken, and started looking over the console again. 

Eleven sighed, “I don’t know if it’s lying. More...stretching the truth. Is the travelling still wonderful? Yes, of course it is. The universe is still there, all those planets, and people, and it’s never, ever the same. I’ve never wanted to give that up.” 

“But,” Ten took up the story. “It’s not like I have anywhere else to go, anymore. I have to travel. There’s nowhere left.”

“There’s Earth,” Eight said. “Assuming it hasn’t been destroyed, that is, sometime after me.”

“Oh, no, Earth’s still there,” Ten continued. “Still petty and amazing all at once, going strong. But it’s...different, being the Last.”  
“  
You’re very hung up on that, aren’t you?” Six asked abruptly, looking up from the console.

Ten looked back at him in astonishment, “Am I hung up on being the last of my species? Yes, obviously, I am.”

Twelve groaned, “I’d forgotten how much time I spent whinging about it when I was you.” 

“You mean you’ve completely, what, got over it?” Ten asked, standing up and staring right at Twelve. 

“Well, I don’t spend all my time crying about it, if that’s what you mean,” Twelve said.

“This is what you turn into?” Ten asked Eleven, as if it was his fault.

“Hey, I don’t get to pick what I regenerate into. Neither did you,” Eleven shot back.

“All right, all right,” One said, stepping in between them. “We still have the little problem of the end of the universe.”

“Oh, right,” Eight said. “I can’t remember, had we decided whether something had led us here or whether we just followed the time vortex to its end?”

“I think-” Two said as the TARDIS rocked to the side one more time. “Oh, there’s the last one.”

“Oh, I see you’re all here already,” the newest arrival said.

“Oh, so I have a beard now? That’s new,” Eight said. 

Nine, Ten, and Eleven stepped aside quietly, letting the new arrival take center stage.

“So you’re Thirteen? My goodness, the last one,” One said, stepping forward.

“Me? Thirteen? No, no, I’m after him,” the new one said, gesturing vaguely to Eight.

“What?” Four said. “In between Eight and Nine? You must be one of those in between incarnations.”

“Oh, no,” said Six, looking angry. “I know who you are, Valeyard!*” He glared at the new arrival and motioned for the others to join him.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” the War Doctor said exasperatedly. “Of course I’m not the Valeyard.”

“No, but let’s face it, there’s not much difference between you two,” Nine said darkly.

“Why? Because he’s fought in a war? Tell me, how different is that from anything you’ve done, or any of us has done?” Twelve asked aggressively.

“No, he’s right,” the War Doctor said sadly. “I’m not the Valeyard, but I’m not all that removed from him either. I’ve done things in that war that I never would have dreamed   
myself capable of.”

“You’re referring to this, this...Time War, I assume?” One asked.

The War Doctor nodded, and Six rolled his eyes. “You know, I’m getting very tired of hearing about this war that won’t even happen for three more incarnations.”

“I didn’t bring it up!” The War Doctor protested. “I’m very glad to be out of it, even for a few moments. Where are we, anyway?”

“The end of the universe,” Five said. “Everything’s collapsing around us.”

“Is it really? How fascinating,” the War Doctor said.

“You know, this means someone must be pulling us here,” Ten said conversationally. “Because that war is time-locked. Nothing can get in or out. Even if he heard the vortex collapsing, he couldn’t have got out to follow it.”

“You’re right,” Eleven said. He turned to the War Doctor. “How did you get here? Why did you decide to come here?”

The War Doctor shrugged, “I just...thought it. The end of the universe couldn’t be any worse than the Time War, could it? Besides, I thought if I could see it end, far in the future, I’d know that I was fighting for something worthwhile.”

“But how did you get here?” Nine asked.

“I told you, I thought it and then I came here. I don’t even remember how,” the War Doctor answered, looking confused. “Is that why I find there are places I can’t go? Because the war is time-locked?”

“Er, yeah, sorry about that,” Ten said. “It had to be contained somehow.”

“No, don’t be! I would have done the same.”

“So, I may just be a little confused, but who exactly are you? If you’re not the Thirteenth?” Five asked.

“I’m you,” the War Doctor answered. “Between Eight and Nine.”

“But you’re a fully-fledged incarnation?” Three asked.

“I am, but I’m not the Doctor,” the War Doctor said. “I can’t be the Doctor if all I do is fight.” His tone remained calm, although his expression grew pensive with what he had lost.

“Is it just me, or do things seem to get a bit confusing in our old age?” Four said in an aside to Seven.

“Tell me about it,” Twelve said, overhearing them.

“So, now we’ve determined someone’s bringing us here,” Two said. “The only question is, who?”

They all looked around, no one wanting to say that something with the power to bring them all here and keep them here was unimaginably powerful. Someone that even all together, they might not be able to stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Valeyard, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a semi-incarnation in between the Doctors twelfth and final regenerations, made up of all the Doctor’s darkest impulses. From the Sixth Doctor serial The Trial of a Time Lord


	10. Chapter 10

The TARDIS seemed to shudder, and then finally went dead, the lights dimming to a ghostly glow. “The TARDIS,” Two said in hushed, panicked tones. “It’s dead!”

“Nah, she’s not,” Ten said. “She’s still in there. Now that the time vortex is collapsing, she’s bound to get a bit weaker. Not giving up yet, though, are you?” He smiled up at the time rotor fondly.

The TARDIS hummed weakly and Ten grinned, “That’s my girl. Now, where were we?”

“Finding a way out of this,” Twelve said. “I have no interest in staying here while the universe dies, listening to my other selves jabber away, comparing notes on how great they think they are.”

“Aren’t you just a little interested in why we’re here?” Five asked. “After all, we may not be able to find our way out without knowing why we’re in it in the first place.”

“The vegetable gardener is right,” Three said. “Believe me, I don’t want to be trapped here any more than you do, but we’ll never work out how to get out without understanding what brought us here.”

“I….brought...you….here,” a rasping, wheezy voice boomed suddenly throughout the room. The all looked around in alarm.

“What was that?” One asked.

“I don’t know,” Two answered, a shrewd expression entering his eyes. “But I have a very good idea it has something to do with what we’re doing here.”

“Why does it sound all...coughy?” Eleven asked.

“‘Coughy’?” Six repeated in disdain.

“It’s using the TARDIS engines to speak,” the War Doctor said slowly. “Don’t you see, that’s why it sounds like that! It’s turning the grinding noise into words. Remarkable!”

“But what is it?” Eight asked, his gaze intent. “I mean, it fits with what Twelve said, that something’s using the TARDIS to keep us here. It’s only natural something that powerful, without any other technology present, would use the TARDIS to communicate with us. It’s rather impressive; there aren’t very many things powerful enough to do that.”

The effort to speak seemed to be difficult, because the entity had stopped after that first sentence. The Doctors looked surreptitiously at each other. “Should we try to communicate with it?” Two asked.

“Well, what else are we going to do with it?” Four asked, raising his voice. “Hello! We were just wondering what you were doing with our TARDIS!”

“Your...TARDIS...is...of...me,” the groaning voice said.

“What are you talking about?” Seven asked impatiently. 

"It….is….me...as….you...are...of...me,” the voice continued.

Ten’s eyebrows went up, “Well, unless we someday evolve past the need for corporeal bodies, I’m guessing that’s not one of us.”

“We might,” Six said half-heartedly.

“Oh, I hope not,” Eleven said. “I’d miss needing a TARDIS. Not to mention, wearing clothes.”

“Excuse me, do you mind not being rude to the entity talking to us through the TARDIS?” Nine asked, turning around. Eleven fell silent, although he did an exaggerated imitation of Nine’s schoolmaster expression behind his earlier self’s back. One saw and started to giggle behind his hand. 

“Now, when you say the TARDIS is of you, and so am I, what do you mean?” Four called up to the ceiling.

“Everything….is...me. I….am….everything that has lived and died,” the voice said, its pace quickening as it became more comfortable using the TARDIS engines to speak. “It all existed in me!”

“A Guardian, perhaps?” Eight asked, but Seven shook his head.

“I don’t think so. Taking credit for everything in the entire universe is pompous even for them.”

“Excuse me,” One said. “If everything exists in you, does that make you...some type of god?”

“Oh, come on, you must know there’s no such thing!” Twelve protested. 

“Shhh,” Two said quickly.

“Don’t ‘shhh’ me!”

“I am not a creator,” the voice said. “I….am creation.”

Three knitted his brows together. “It is creation? Whatever does that mean?”

“ ‘I am creation’?” Ten repeated in confusion. Then he slapped a hand to his forehead. “Oh! Don’t you see! It’s everything, all at once! It literally is all of creation! Oh, that is   
brilliant!”

“Calm down, young man. Now, whatever are you talking about?” One asked impatiently. 

“I think I see,” Two said slowly. When the others all stared at him, he went on. “Well, don’t you see? We were brought here, and kept here, by something more powerful than anything any of us has ever seen before. Except there’s nothing here except for us and what remains of the universe. Since we didn’t bring ourselves here, and the only other thing here…”

Eleven’s eyes widened, “...is the universe itself.”

“Exactly,” Two said.

Silence fell in the TARDIS. “A sentient universe,” Three breathed. “I never would have thought it.”

“Who would have?” Nine said. “All these centuries of life and no evidence to suggest the universe was anything other than a giant blob holding all the planets and comets and stuff inside.”

“For eons I was content to watch and learn,” the voice said, becoming quicker as it became accustomed to using the engines to speak. “To ride the waves of what was created of me.”

“But now?” the War Doctor prompted.

“Now all that once existed in me is gone,” It answered. “I am small….and weak. I am dying, Doctor.”

“Yes,” Nine said. “It’s time. Expansion, contraction, birth, death. It’s the way of the universe, if you don’t mind the expression.”

“I learned much from the planets and people who lived their lives within me,” the universe went on. “I lived it all. War, love, joy. I do not wish it to end.”

“And you think we can help?” Six asked.

“Of all the beings who lived within my boundaries,” it said. “You, Doctor, are the one who has lived the most out of anyone within my boundaries. You have seen and done more than any other life-form. If anyone can help me, it is you.”

“And why would I interfere with the natural order of things?” One asked imperiously. “The contraction of the universe causes the creation and expansion of the next. It’s unstoppable.”

“Yeah, some things even I can’t change,” Nine said bitterly.

“So you will not help?” The universe asked, and even through the grinding of the engines, they could hear the desperation in its tone.

Seven sighed, “We can’t. There’s simply nothing we can do about it.”

There was a pause, in which the finality of the decision weighed down upon them, and then Twelve looked up. “Why can’t we?”

They all stared at him, and he went on, “It’s not like we’ve never done the impossible before. Honestly, I think we see it as a challenge. Escaping from Gallifrey? Impossible. Except it wasn’t really that difficult, was it?”

“Well, it wasn’t easy by any means, but-” One said, but Twelve cut him off.

“Meeting your other selves and living through it. Impossible, right? Oh, except it wasn’t!”

Three conceded the point, “True enough. Look at us now.”

“The Last Great Time War, impossible to live through. Except we not only lived through it, we ended it!”

“You don’t need to sound so proud of it,” Nine muttered. 

“Surviving past thirteen regenerations,” Twelve continued, ignoring him. “I wouldn’t even exist if any of us had ever accepted ‘impossible’ as an answer.”

“Hang on, I thought you were the last one,” Five said. Eleven waved a hand carelessly.

“It got a bit timey-wimey by the end. Nothing to worry about, like he said, it’s all sorted now.”

“So, come on, what are we waiting for?” Twelve said, his ever-present glare finally disappearing and a gleam of excitement taking its place.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there was no update yesterday!

"Hang on, are we really doing this?" Nine asked. 

Six shrugged, "Like he said, why not? It's worth a try. We certainly can't make it any worse."

"I just have one question," Seven said. "How did you bring us here?"

"I knew that only one being could work something of this magnitude," the universe answered. "I have watched you, Doctor, through all your lives. You are the only one who could help me so I reached across time and space and led you here."

"I told you it was mind control," Three said petulantly.

"It wassss not control!" The universe exclaimed. "I do not have that power. I am everything, and everything is me. The thought was mine, and therefore also yours "

"Doesn't that undermine free will?" Eight asked. "If all our thoughts are really your thoughts?"

"If I have free will, then so do you,” the universe said. “So do all creatures within my boundaries. We are all one.”

Nine, to everyone's surprise, smiled, "Universe, I think you and I are starting to understand each other."

"I agree,” the universe said.

"Yes, but why all of us?" the War Doctor asked. "Surely, if you found the oldest of us, he would have all the knowledge and experience necessary. You hardly needed to pluck thirteen of us out of our times and bring us all here."

There was an odd noise, the engines grinding quickly, and they looked at each other in confusion. "Is that laughter?" Three asked, somewhat affronted.

"Genius you may be, Doctor, greater than any who has lived within my boundaries," the universe said, sounding amused. "But this problem is more than any one person can solve, even you. I found as many of you as I could before my time ran out."

“Left it a bit late, didn’t you?” Ten asked. “I mean, you had centuries when you knew this was coming. Did you have to leave it until the last few minutes?”

“You were not an easy man to find, Doctorrrrr,” the universe answered. “Running about in time as much as you did.”

“Yes, about that, in future, just use the psychic paper,” Eleven said, holding it up. “Receives messages from anywhere in time and space. Much less fuss than all this.”

“Psychic paper?” Three asked. “What an extraordinary invention!”

“Do you mean people can send you messages, track you down all over the cosmos on that thing?” Four asked disdainfully.

“Sometimes,” Eleven answered defensively. “The universe is right about one thing, we’re not exactly easy to find if someone needs to.”

“Well, exactly. That’s the point,” Four said. “I don’t want people sending me all over the universe doing their dirty work!”

“Hmm, I must say, I’m glad I didn’t have that gadget in my time,” Three said. “The Brigadier would have been calling me night and day!” He and Four grinned at each other, and Six looked up.

“Wasn’t he doing that anyway? I seem to remember him summoning me all over Britain every time he couldn’t handle something.” 

“If we could stay on task, please,” Two said pointedly, glaring at his successor, who made a face back at him.

They began to pace around the room one by one, each Doctor occasionally throwing out an idea and then taking it back when it proved to be unworkable. 

“We could send out a signal that instructs the universe to stop collapsing,” Two suggested half-heartedly. “There might be some mechanism that’s causing all this.”

“I somehow don’t think a signal’s going to stop this,” Five said. “We could take the universe’s consciousness into the TARDIS and plant it in the next universe.”

“And how are we going to survive this one?” Six asked.

“Go into an alternate dimension,” Eight said. “And then return when the new universe is stable enough. We wouldn’t be gone five minutes.”

Twelve made a face, “I don’t like alternate universes. Too much can go wrong. There’s no guarantee we’d be able to get back with a different entity in the TARDIS matrix.”

“And what about the TARDIS herself?” Eleven asked quietly. “We can’t remove the matrix from here; besides, where is she supposed to go?”  
“It would probably kill us anyway,” Ten said. “Symbiotic connection,” he added to Five. “Much stronger now than in your day.”

“Oh,” Five said, looking disappointed.

“What if we blew up the TARDIS instead?” Six suggested.

“Are you serious?” Three asked.

“Yes, I must say, I agree with the dandy. A terrible idea,” One said imperiously.

“No, listen,” Six went on impatiently. “The explosion would be powerful enough to cancel out the collapse and start the expansion again. It could work!’

“It would work,” Eleven said. “I’ve had to do that once already-”

“Really?” the War Doctor asked. “How are you still alive?”

“Long story, granddad,” Eleven answered. “But this time, I don’t think we’d be so lucky. It would work...but since we’re all trapped here, it would take all of us with it.”

There was a silence, and then Twelve scoffed, “But we already know that didn’t happen. We all wouldn’t be here if we’d each been killed here. It’s a paradox.”

“Can’t you see the time streams in flux?” Three asked. “Nothing here has happened yet. It’s still being determined. If we die here, that will take place over the old reality that we remember.”

Another awkward silence passed, and then Seven stood up. “If we’re going to do this, we need to think about it carefully. It’s not just our lives we need to be concerned with.”

“I hardly think we are,” Three countered. “We’re talking about the entire universe here.”

“Yes, but it’s not just the universe either!” Seven protested. “It’s all of time itself. There are remnants of my time stream all over the cosmos. I don’t think there’s a time and place I haven’t touched in some way.”

“He’s got a point,” Ten conceded.

“Yes, well, the entirety of the time streams could collapse if I was taken out of them,” Eleven cut in. “All of history would be different.”

“We could very well be saving the universe only to have it all fall apart again,” Seven finished.

“Wouldn’t the time streams simply rewrite themselves?” the War Doctor asked. “It would be an entirely new universe, after all. Besides, if some of the events I was involved in disappeared, I don’t really think it’d be that great of a loss.”

“So, the universe would be restarted, so to speak, but without us,” Three summed up. “The question is, are we willing to do that?”

The quiet in the TARDIS grew eerie, and then Nine spoke first. “I’m game,” he said. “There are worse ways to end than saving the entire universe. It’s more than I asked for, anyway.”

“Well, then, count me in,” Five said, with a quick smile at Nine, who only barely returned it.

“And me,” said Three. “I suppose one life - or thirteen, so to speak - is a small enough price to pay for the entire universe.”

“Even my life,” Six agreed. “I’m all for it. Nothing like going out in a blaze of glory.”

“That’s an….interesting way of phrasing it,” the War Doctor said. “Nevertheless, I agree.”

“And me,” Eight added.

One by one, they all added their agreement to the plan, until finally it was only One and Twelve left. “Well,” Seven asked expectantly.

“I suppose, if all of you are for it,” One answered. “As you say, one life is a small price for the entire universe.” He sighed. “I would very much have liked to live all of your lives, however.”

“It wasn’t that great,” Twelve said roughly. “Well? Are we doing this?”

“Oh, you agree?” Three asked.

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” Twelve answered, beginning to set the TARDIS to overload. “Let’s get it over with, shall we?”


	12. Chapter 12

“Hang on, what if we were to freeze the TARDIS at the exact moment of the explosion?” Ten asked, interrupting what had become a very tense moment. The cloister bell stopped ringing as Twelve returned the TARDIS systems to normal.

“What are you talking about?” Three asked.

“Well, we set the engines to overload, the TARDIS explodes, causing the universe to expand, but that’s no guarantee, is it?” Ten continued. “I mean, the universe could just go straight back to collapsing after the explosion stops. But what if it never stops? What if it just keeps going? There’ll be no collapse at all!”

“It could work,” Eight breathed. “That just might work.”

“Yes, but how do we avoid being trapped in an explosion eternally?” Six asked briskly. “Dying for the universe is one thing; being stuck with all of you for eternity is entirely another.”

“Oh I didn’t think we were so bad,” Five said. “After all, we figured out how to save the universe together, didn’t we?”

“I’ve saved the universe with a lot of people,” Two said with a derisive laugh. “It doesn’t mean I want to spend the rest of time with them all.”

“Well said, for once,” Three said sarcastically, and Two threw him a dirty look.

“We wouldn’t have to,” the War Doctor said.

“Wouldn’t have to what?” Eight asked.

“Spend eternity trapped in an explosion,” the War Doctor continued. When they all stared at him blankly, he rolled his eyes and started entering numbers into the typewriter that was still on the console. “See? The TARDIS doesn’t need to stay in the time frame, just the explosion. If there were even one TARDIS outside, we’d be able to freeze the explosive energy in a time-lock! There’d be no danger of us dying.”

There was a moment of silence, which Eight broke, saying, “Well, I like it.”

They all nodded, leaning in to try and figure out how it would work. Twelve shook his head, “That’ll take some careful planning.”

“The logistics will be difficult,” Seven said. “How will we be able to freeze the explosion without getting blown up ourselves?”

“Oh, that’ll be easy?,” Eleven said. “We just need to work out the right moment to freeze it so the universe will keep expanding..”

“All right, if you’re so clever, how will we know when?” Four asked.

“If I’m right...five minutes into the explosion should release enough energy to keep the universe expanding,” Eleven answered, looking at the watch on the inside of his wrist. “We can set most of the calculations beforehand.”

“So let’s get to it!” Eight said. They all went for the TARDIS console at once, bumping into each other as they did.

“Do you mind?” Two asked peevishly as Three pushed past him.

“Not at all,” Three responded with a teasing smile.

“You know, it is rather difficult to see with both of you in front of me like that,” Seven said from behind Four and Ten.

One sighed and rolled his eyes from behind them, “Out of the way, all of you. I’ll do it.”

“And why should you do it?” Twelve said. “I’m oldest.”

“Oh, for Rassilon’s sake, are you really that childish?” Three asked. 

“Shut up, fancy dress, it means I have the most experience,” Twelve shot back. “You want him setting up this explosion? He couldn’t even figure out how to steer the TARDIS!”

One looked highly affronted, “I’ll have you know that I could have fixed the navigational controls any time I wanted. And the chameleon circuit!”

“Bit of a lost cause, isn’t it?” Nine asked conversationally, punching in the necessary numbers on the console.

“What is?” One asked. “Trying to fix the ship?”

“No. Lying,” Nine answered with a quick smile. “I’m you, remember? I remember everything you’re talking about. You couldn’t have fixed the navigational controls no matter how hard you tried.”

“You still can’t. You think she’d let you?” Eleven asked, glancing up at the TARDIS ceiling.

“Excuse me, are we doing this or not?” Six asked peevishly. “I have places to be twenty thousand years ago, if we could hurry it up?”

“All right, all right, we’re getting to it,” Seven said, entering the last calculation. “Everyone ready?”

The cloister bell started ringing again as the engines built up to an overload. They all stepped back as the temperature increased, watching the scanner.

“It’s going to go too fast,” Four said.

“No, it’s not. It’s working,” Five said.

“It’s not,” Four responded.

“Is this really the time for an argument?” Eleven hissed, and they both fell silent.

The explosion built up quickly, and they all turned to look at the console as it started to smoke. “No, no, no, come on! It’s working!” Ten cried, pulling out a small mallet and banging on the console. A few more controls exploded but when they looked around, nothing else seemed to be going on.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but shouldn’t we be exploding right now?” Six asked.

“Yes, we should be. What happened?” Eleven asked.

“The TARDIS fail-safe, I expect,” Five said. “It won’t let us overload the engines while we’re all in here.”

“Well, then, let’s get out of here then,” Twelve said. They all stared at him.

“The whole point of this is that we can’t get out!” Five said. “You want to just give up?”

Twelve swung the screen around so the rest could see it. “Did I say ‘give up?’ No. The TARDIS is a time machine, yes?”

“She’s a bit more than just a time machine,” Eight protested lightly. “You make it sound like she has no soul.”

Twelve motioned in Eight’s direction. “Exactly. She’s an intelligent time machine. She can sense the time streams better than I can. So, here we all are, telling her to blow herself up with all of us inside. What does she do? We can’t all die here; it’s a paradox Not to mention, taking us out of the time streams will cause irreparable damage to history. So, she refuses. The fail-safes won’t let the overload take place.”

“So how do we undo the failsafes?” Ten asked.

“We don’t. There’s an easier way,” Twelve answered. “We send all of you away, and I overload the TARDIS. You can freeze the explosion, and the universe can go on existing. Neat.”

“But that’ll be it! You’ll die. I'll die,” Eleven said desperately.

“I’ve already had one life more than I should have,” Twelve answered. “Believe me, I’m not happy about it. But you know as well as I do that it’s the only thing that’ll work.”

The others stopped, unsure. “There’s got to be some other way,” Five said.

“It would work,” Seven finally said, quietly. “It gets rid of that little mess with all of us being removed from the timestreams.” 

One and Twelve caught each other’s eyes, and then One went over to the console. “I’m right, of course. Or he’s right, whichever it is. There is no other way.” He input the commands to overload. “I hope that in the course of my lives, I live up to your example today.” 

“Don’t worry,” Twelve answered as he pulled the lever. “You will.”


	13. Chapter 13

The final calculations in place, the Doctors stood back and watched Twelve as he placed his hand on the lever. “You had better get out of here if you’re leaving,” he said.

“I will release you,” the universe rumbled through the TARDIS. “Thank you, Doctorrrr.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” Two said. “It may not work.”

“Oh, come on,” Five said. “Don’t be such a pessimist! With all of us working on it? Of course it’ll work.”

“I’d say you’re the one being a pessimist,” Three said. “If we succeed, it means we die, here, today.”

“Has to happen sometime,” Nine said with a smile. 

“And what better time than the end of the universe?” Eleven asked pensively with a tilt of his head. “Come on, then, Doctors. Time for us to be out of here.”

“We’ll be just outside the blast radius,” Three said to Twelve. “We’ll suspend the explosion at exactly the right moment.”

“Hmm, you’d better,” Twelve answered. “The fate of the universe is in your hands, literally.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re not used to that!” Six said.

“Well, I’m, er,” Three continued, appearing ill at ease, rubbing a hand behind his neck. “I must say, my dear chap, you’ve more than lived up to my expectations.”

“Yes, I think we can all agree that it’s clear we haven’t changed a bit,” Five said.

“Good luck,” Ten said quietly.

“I’m glad to see,” the War Doctor said as he stepped forward, “that I am still the Doctor, even at the end of the universe.”

“I always was,” Twelve answered, offering him a handshake that his other self seemed surprised to receive.

“Are we ready?” Six asked.

“Yes, yes, we’re ready,” Seven said, sounding annoyed. 

The engines started to grind as thirteen TARDISes separated from each other. Each Doctor suddenly found himself in his own TARDIS, and each got to work quickly.

“Doctors, are we ready?” Eleven asked over the communication systems.

“Standing ready,” One answered.

“Three….two….one,” Seven counted aloud. Twelve heard him as he raced around the console, making sure he could control the explosion. He stopped and closed his eyes briefly, then looked up at the TARDIS ceiling.

“Well, I didn’t think this would be our end, did you?” He appeared to be waiting for an answer before he shook his head. “Look at me, talking to you like you can answer. You’re a sentimental old fool, Doctor.”

“One,” Seven’s voice came over the intercom, and Twelve took a breath.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” He paused for the briefest second, feeling the TARDIS’s emotions as if they were his own. He’d long since stopped making the distinction between them; now, she was feeling the same mix of despair and pride that he was. “It’s strange, isn’t it, to know for sure there’s nothing left for us? I’ve never just given up before.” Her answering surge of supportive, irritated pride told him what he needed to know. They weren’t giving up. Only giving the entire universe a chance. “At least we’re in agreement, at the end. The last Time Lord and the last TARDIS. Has a certain poetic justice to it, doesn’t it?”

The TARDIS’s emotion in his head turned to exasperation, and he could almost picture her rolling her eyes. “All right, fine, I’m going ahead.” He pushed the button and the explosion started with a rumble. The temperature shot up and the cloister bell was ringing louder than he’d ever heard it before. All too soon, the heart of the TARDIS ripped free, the time streams bursting through the walls. He screamed in spite of himself; he hadn’t known it would hurt this much. He could feel his body changing, becoming his earlier selves as the time streams poured through him and pieces of the TARDIS floated around him. Memories of his companions ran through his mind until he was brought back to the present, and knew for certain that he only had seconds left. He smiled. After all this, he thought, I hope it worked. And then, for the first time in his thirteen lives, the Doctor let go and floated free into nothing.

 

“It’s started!” Eight called over the intercom. All their instruments were going haywire; unable to read the various time streams that had become twisted together in the energy pouring out from the exploded TARDIS.

“Yes, I can see that, thanks!” Two said. “Everyone ready?”

“Ready!” Four said.

“On three,” One said.

“On me, or on the number three?” Three asked.

“You’re really going there?” Ten asked.

“On the number, for heaven’s sake,” One shot back. “One, two, three!”

They all pressed the time-lock key at exactly the same instant, and the explosion stopped as abruptly as it began. “Did it work?” Five asked.

“Well, the explosion’s stopped,” Eleven said. He checked the readings and furrowed his brows. “It doesn’t seem to be collapsing anymore.”

“Look out the door!” Four called. Running to open the doors, they could see him waving at them. Seven gasped. The explosion hung perfectly in space; pieces of broken TARDIS   
frozen in time. The flames were still, hanging in place like a sculpture.

“I think….yes! The expansion’s begun again!” Eight cried. From his excitement, it sounded as if he was jumping up and down in glee. “It worked!”

“I can feel it,” the deep voice of the universe rumbled through the TARDIS engines. “Growing, changing...the cycle has begun anew. I cannot express my gratitude, Doctor.”

They stopped, the realization that they would certainly die here as they had just witnessed sinking in.

“Use it well,” Nine finally said. “I don’t give my life for just anything, you know.”

“It’s exciting, isn’t it?” Ten said with a smile. “Whole new chance, new life that’s never existed before. A whole redo!”

“I wish he could have seen it,” Five said sadly.

“We’ll see it,” Eleven said. “This whole new universe is part of the time stream now. We’ll see every inch of it, and remember. So he’ll remember, and he’ll know what he gave his   
life for.”

“Yes,” Three said. “Well, I suppose that means it’s time to go. I must say, it’s been...enlightening.”

“Yes, let’s not do it again too soon, shall we?” Six said.

“I quite agree,” Two said grandly. “There are enough people in the universe without running into myself everywhere.”

“Until the next time, then?” Eight said.

“Haven’t you been listening?” Six asked loudly.

“I never listen to myself talk, you should know that better than anyone,” Eight shot back.

Seven smiled to himself as he set the coordinates to leave, gazing out at the explosion that now made up the center of the universe. “Some psychiatrist will have a field day with that,” he said quietly as he left. “I’m quite literally the center of the universe now.”

One by one, they all returned to their original time streams, the events at the end of the universe fading until they were nearly forgotten, as was natural when the First Rule was broken.. And the universe went on, the energy from the exploded TARDIS keeping it expanding and giving it the heat and heavy elements necessary to start the life cycle anew.   
And the universe watched life grow within itself, watching for the Doctor whenever he appeared, smiling to itself when he did. 

Even when no one else remembered, the universe itself always would.


	14. Chapter 14

The War Doctor lingered, contemplating the new universe. Or, rather, the old one reborn. It seemed a shame that he wouldn’t see it. Leave it to...well, himself, to time-lock the war, and he couldn’t even pretend he didn’t understand why. He knew perfectly well, and was more than willing to sacrifice his chance to travel the universe in order to keep it safe. He thought of his final self, feeling a kinship with him. He’d made an impossible choice, and done it for the best of reasons. The War Doctor closed his eyes, hoping he would never have to make such a choice. He sighed and put a hand in his pocket, pulling out the small hard drive Twelve had surreptitiously given him when they had shaken hands. 

“Time to be going, don’t you think?” he asked the TARDIS, setting the coordinates for Gallifrey. He could tell, as any Time Lord would, that the time streams would be kept open for him to return to the war, in spite of the time lock. Seeing this...his successors, the universe they would help to begin, the War Doctor tried to think of returning to the war as his duty. His part to play in keeping the cosmos safe. It would be worth it, in the end, but it was the living through it that he wasn’t sure he could do. The others, they were all returning to their friends, their wanderings among the stars. He wanted more than anything to just slip away, to travel the universe, but knew he couldn’t

None of them had to return to what he did, the War Doctor thought in a rare moment of bitterness. He sighed and pushed the button to go, slipping Twelve’s hard drive into the console. He had to have passed this on for a reason. Might as well see what was on it; it might make the difference to the war effort. The War Doctor winced, feeling himself return to battle plans and war tactics. He had so enjoyed the rest.

Suddenly, Twelve’s face appeared on screen. “Hello!” he said. 

“We’ve only just said goodbye,” the War Doctor answered.

Twelve rolled his eyes, “If you answered me - and you must have, you’re me - I can’t hear you. But, I gave this to you for a reason.” His gaze onscreen became more intense, glaring down at the War Doctor, who wondered briefly if this was what his life, specifically his, caused in his successors. Twelve went on, his voice lowering. “You’re the one returning to Gallifrey.”

“Yes?” the War Doctor said. “Although right now it doesn’t look as if there’ll be a Gallifrey for much longer.”

“You’re probably saying something about how Gallifrey might not have much time left,” Twelve said. “I’m you, remember? I know how you think. You won’t remember this, so write this down.”

“Why would I pay attention to something I know I’m not going to remember?” The War Doctor asked, but he wrote a note in the TARDIS’s memory circuits anyway.

“Gallifrey falls,” Twelve said simply, cutting him off. “The war is lost. Both sides lose” The War Doctor caught his breath. He failed. In his one purpose. 

“Sorry to be so rough about it, I don’t have a lot of time,” Twelve went on. “For a while I thought I could find it. Gallifrey. It wasn’t destroyed, although I spent a lot of time thinking it was. Anyway, I thought I could find it. Except I couldn’t. Don’t worry, I knew how this was going to end. I always did. I remember it. The combined memories of Twelve lives is enough to break the safeguards around the First Rule.”

“Oh, just get on with it!” the War Doctor snapped.

“Right! Time limit,” Twelve said. He snapped back to attention. “Anyway, if you’re watching this, you have the hard drive from the TARDIS matrix. I downloaded my brain wave pattern onto it.”

“Oh!” the War Doctor said. Exactly the way dying Time Lords preserved their knowledge and memories for future generations on Gallifrey, only using the TARDIS memory circuits instead. 

“I did it before I got here. You’re the one returning to Gallifrey,” Twelve continued. “Take it back there. Take it home, for me. So my memories won’t die with me. Maybe they’ll do Gallifrey some good, if anyone ever manages to find it.”

The War Doctor looked at the screen shrewdly. It might do Gallifrey some good even before that. The experiences of all the Doctors might just be enough to tip the balance in favor of the Time Lords.

“I don’t want my life experiences to disappear when I’m gone,” Twelve continued. “I have too many of them, somebody should get some use out of them. And that’s it, my time is up. I’ll see you in person soon enough. And, Doctor, thank you.” The image cut out and faded to black.

“I will,” the War Doctor said to the blank screen. “Thank you, Doctor. You just might give us the chance we need.” He set the coordinates, his step lighter than it had been in years. He could hardly wait to see the Council’s faces when he revealed what he had brought back. Gallifrey’s most famous son, returning home. And the future generations of Time Lords, if there were any, who would benefit from the knowledge he was bringing back. It might just usher in a new age for the Time Lords. It all depended on him. The War Doctor steeled himself. 

He wasn’t about to let Gallifrey down. Or let himself down. He was the Doctor, after all. And he would never, ever, give up.


End file.
